Hic Sunt Dracones
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The oldest story in the book is still in the book for a reason

5/28/2014

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My brother is my better half,
or so my father always said.
His hands are rough but neat,
whereas mine are sinewy and strange.
His jaw is square but gentle,
whereas mine is a trough for tilting white tombstones.
His eyes are bright and shiny as copper pennies,
whereas mine glow like the sickly sun on pondwater.
He walks in long, smooth strides
that no one ever doubted
would take him where he wanted to go.
I do not have the confidence to walk so forcefully,
so trustingly.
My brother is the best son my parents could have hoped to have,
and I am not my brother.
But I am also not his flock,
nor am I his keeper.
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The Last Word

5/28/2014

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I stare at the glowing screen,
Far too bright
Because I override the energy saver settings,
Far too sleek
Because I erase each fingerprint on the hem of some garment before it has lasted a minute in this world,
Far too small,
And rigid,
And boxed,
To contain the vast – no –
Infinite portion of a life that it does.
Lit up in a thousand minuscule pixels
Is a single text,
A single word,
"Fuck!"
I smile as I read it,
That little word in a little grey speech bubble,
The last in a long timeline of silent conversation,
Back and forth:
Green, grey, green, grey, green...
Grey.
The last word. 
My smile fades.
Outside of the small,
Rigid
Box,
The conversations have grown silent too.
The last one was short.
I told him I might have made a mistake
In changing the text tone on my phone
To such a startling sound.
He sends that last word,
A test,
And my phone blares,
A gasping, mechanical sound
That few recognize.
We get curious looks,
We laugh,
And then we leave.
Since then there has been nothing but silence,
And I stare at the screen,
Far too bright.
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Bricks

5/28/2014

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Patterns in old red stone,
surfaces worn by the worn surfaces of countless soles,
making their own patterns.
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In space, no one can save you from your own stupidity (alternately, Astronaut Warning)

8/9/2013

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When on a space ship, 
Do not open a window,
It's not refreshing.
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I Fell From the Sky

3/16/2012

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Sometimes
I feel
I fell from
The sky,
I do not belong,
Should not even try.
Sometimes
I wish
I could be somewhere
Else,
Somewhere far,
Impossibly
Far
And high
And away 
And transcendent 
And free!

...Got 
A little
Dizzy 
There. 
Got
Away from
 Myself.
Myself...

Sometimes
When I
Look up at
The sky,
I feel the broken wings on my back
And still wonder why
I cannot fly.
But really,
Most of the time,
I am fine. 

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You Are Like a Flower, My Love

6/22/2011

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You are like a flower, my love.
Your skin is fair and perfect as delicate petals,
Your cheeks blush like an English rose.
You shine to all around you,
Drinking in the sun and blossoming in its light.
Everyone is drawn to the sweetness, the beauty of a flower such as you.
And no one ever suspects the truth,
For beneath the surface lies something sinister.
Every flower, too, has its roots.
Beneath the blossom, beneath the earth, under the cover of darkness,
The flower’s sickly sinews knife downwards,
Burrowing, burrowing,
Greedily seeking life to claim for their own.
Your web misses nothing,
It lies just behind your fair and delicate skin, your blushing cheeks, your beauty and your sunshine glow.
You draw all in with sweet nectar and ensnare them in your traps.
And afterwards you shine just a little brighter.
My love, my flower.

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Who Is The Soldier?

4/15/2011

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Heavy breaths come as she pushes herself to keep moving,
With forced and desperate grace.
But she is not supposed to breathe,
It betrays her, as human.
She will be disciplined later.

He twirls with the bullets,
Dipping and leaping through fire.
His ears ring with the beautiful music of explosions.
He is filled with the thrill of the motions.

She is not seen,
Fading away.
Washed out by the spotlight.
She throws up her last meal,
Her last memory.
In the porcelain toilet in the small, French bathroom.

His commander barks orders and he follows blindly.
Her teacher barks orders and she follows blindly.

He dances with fire, with death.
She dances with the cold spotlight, the unforgiving crowd.
She dances for her life.

As they spin faster and faster,
Their figures blurring into one,
It is hard to tell
Who is the ballerina,
And who is the soldier.
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The City's Song

4/15/2011

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The cold concrete writhes beneath their soles,
Whispering, screaming,
The echoes of a million other footsteps, journeys.
It hums, the gears of a working machine.
Metal, glass, brick, cement twist and churn.
I walk the lattice-grid streets,
Past paths visible only to me as black-paint shoe prints.
I lose my own among them.
This beast is both cage and cradle, shelter and shipwreck.
It sings to me its noxious-sweet siren song
And I am lost.
Adrift.
The gears grind.
I see my past and future in this place,
Reflected in the glass.
Places I have been, have yet to go,
Scatter the board.
I stop.
The gears grind.
I breathe.
Sweet poison.
I cannot find myself.
I am no longer lost.
I am no one,
No one in the flow and flux.
More blood in cold, steel veins.
Cables above and below,
A web of lives.
The echoes of a million other journeys hum to me
The city’s song.
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Teenager, noun

4/15/2011

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Teenager, noun.
Difficult.
Moody.
Irrational.
Teenager, noun.
We hide behind jeans and sweatshirts and skateshoes
Because we cannot be ourselves.
We are soldiers of the same uniform, just following orders,
Just following orders.
Teenager, noun.
We talk stupid,
We tlk lik ths,
Or talk with no sound at all,
Because we cannot have a voice.
We are too young,
We haven’t earned it yet.
Teenager, noun.
We cannot be trusted,
Because we will surely disobey.
We drink, we drug, we die;
Not because it is cool,
But because it is expected.
Teenager, noun!
We are not like you,
We are alien.
Not a part of society.
Yet.
Teenager, noun.
Do you remember your first car?
Your first kiss?
Do you remember high school,
And college?
Your parents when they were still parents?
That is you.
That is us.
Teenager, noun.
If this is our definition,
Then we are not teenagers at all.
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True Colors

4/15/2011

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White tree,
Black bark.
Stars hanging
In silvery dark.
Nature’s colors
Dark or light.
Just look around as you live your life.

Available in The Other Side of the Story.
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